Connor had decided to be condescending to Drew, which the first-year decided he really didn’t like at all. The older student was just making things up! That was really dumb and rude. “You don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Drew said, matter-of-factly, ‘cause it was true. “Like, first of all, you don’t even know what Aaron’s like. And you don’t know why he moved schools, you’re just making assumptions that there was trouble. Maybe he just wanted to go somewhere else, or teach a different subject.”

Admittedly, Drew also did not know why Aaron had moved schools, but that was beside the point. People switched jobs sometimes. That seemed totally normal. It was like when you were doing homework for one subject and got bored, you could switch to doing homework for another class because you weren’t bored of that one yet. Although usually if Drew got bored doing homework he would just take a break and do something else like listen to music. But the point was that he could see how that would happen at a job too.

There was a word for what Connor was being but Drew couldn’t remember it. It was like… hetero-something-bad. Like heterosexist or something like that. Drew decided not to use it because he didn’t remember it for sure, but then again he was pretty sure Connor wouldn’t know the difference.

And what did that even mean, family-friendly? Drew didn’t know, but Connor was saying Aaron wasn’t that, so Drew was gonna argue with it. “And Aaron is part of my family, and he’s an awesome step-dad.” Aaron had taught Drew and Madeleine charms even before they were in school. Madeleine didn’t have a wand yet but sometimes she practiced with a toy or a spoon or something anyway. Nothing happened when she did that, but Aaron would still help her with her wand motion and pronunciation until she had it right. Aaron also made Halloween costumes and enchanted clothes for them, and he baked with them. Drew was not very interested in baking itself but he was very interested in eating cookies and things, and Madeleine liked to decorate things with icing (not necessarily limited to baked goods). They had fun and usually didn’t make the kitchen too much of a mess. And sometimes they all went to the park on Pearl Street and Aaron would go into his Animagus form and they would play fetch. That was really fun.

“He teaches us cool spells and we play games and bake together and stuff. So as far as I’m concerned he’s pretty family-friendly. Just because a family isn’t the same as yours doesn’t mean that it’s bad or not a family.” Except that Drew knew that their families were actually a little similar in one way, because Dade had said that he and his siblings had a stepmother. He’d also said that none of them liked her very much, which Drew thought was weird. If you had kids and you weren’t married, why would you get married to someone who didn’t get along with your kids? It was just asking for there to be fights and problems and stuff. Whereas Aaron had been part of the family even before he and Dad started dating, and Dad knew Aaron got along with Drew and Madeleine before Aaron had moved in with them. “At least we all get along with each other.”

If Connor had thought he was confused before, he had clearly underestimated the situation because now Drew was talking about how Professor McKindy had taught at a bunch of other schools. Was he... more

Families were confusing because Connor knew how they were supposed to go, and he was pretty sure that most of his family’s problems were related to not having a family the way they were supposed to... more

Connor was wrong and stupid and Drew wasn’t good enough at arguing to tell him why. “Your dad is supposed to be a role model for you,” he said, to start with. All fathers were in a position to be... more

Connor flushed a dark, angry red. He knew Marley was bad. He knew Marley was very bad, and quite honestly he didn’t know how Claudia could deal with her but what this conversation with Drew was... more

There were a couple of seconds before Drew really processed what Connor had said. Then Drew clenched his fists. No one had ever actually said it about his family before as far as Drew could remember, ... more

Drew decided, apparently, that it was a good idea to fully demonstrate just how awful he was because not only did Drew choose to use an absolutely rude word towards Connor, but he also bludgeoned... more

Drew was almost at the stairs. He was hoping that the stairs wouldn’t screw up today and mess up his exit. They had messed up a few times for Dade lately. The older boy would go up the stairs to the... more

It was about three seconds between the words leaving Connor’s mouth and Drew practically running toward him to hit him. At first, Connor was shocked. He had never actually been hit before, not like... more

On the upside, Drew was able to punch Connor for longer than he thought he was going to be able to. He had only meant to hit him once, but then he had realized that Connor might hit back if he had... more

Aaron wasn’t exactly sure what he had been expecting when he asked the boys what had happened, but he was pretty sure that it was on the level of what Connor had said. Well, not directly - Drew... more

Connor was still crying a little bit but he was no longer actively being punched, so his tears were starting to subside, although his sniffling wasn’t. He was embarrassed to be crying in front of the ... more

Drew did not land super gracefully when Aaron let the spell down, but after a stumble he regained his footing and obediently went to Aaron’s office. Okay so this wasn’t going great , but things could ... more